Neal Brennan (born October 19, 1973)[1][4][5] is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director and producer.

He is known for co-creating and co-writing the Comedy Central series Chappelle's Show with Dave Chappelle.[6][7][8] By the end of the second season, it was ranked as the most popular Comedy Central show. It premiered in January 2003 and continued into 2005, when Chappelle left before the third season.

Brennan moved to New York to attend film school at NYU, but he dropped out after a year.[3][10][12] He began as a doorman at the now-defunct Boston Comedy Club in Greenwich Village where he met Dave Chappelle, a frequent performer.[4][13] The two became friends and Brennan would often pitch jokes to Chappelle.[10][13] Brennan also shared an apartment with comedian Jay Mohr while living in New York.[1]

After six months of working as a doorman at the Boston Comedy Club, in 1992 Brennan first performed stand-up at 18 years of age.[5] He later recounted: "I got no laughs;" he didn't perform stand-up again until 1997.[5] Brennan also wrote for The Source magazine in 1992.[2][14]

In a 2006 interview Brennan referred to the period of the film's release as "probably the worst year of my life, creatively and personally."[3] In an interview that same year on Inside the Actor's Studio, Chappelle recounted how he and Brennan lost touch with each other after the release of Half Baked, saying that it was "like leaving a crime scene".[20]

Four years later Brennan and Chappelle came together to co-create, co-write and co-executive produce the eponymous sketch comedyChappelle's Show, which premiered in January 2003.[1][7][13] Brennan said that he and Chappelle read the book Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live (2002), by Tom Shales when they started writing sketches for the show, and found the book very helpful.[21] The duo wrote the show's sketches with minimal outside help[5][22] and agreed never to divulge who was responsible for writing which sketch.[6][23]

Brennan directed some sketches in the show's second season, including the sketch featuring Chappelle as musician Rick James.[1][3][15] Brennan was nominated for three Emmy Awards in 2004 for his work on the show as a director, writer and producer.[24][25] By the end of its second season, Chappelle's Show was Comedy Central's highest-rated program.[26]

Chappelle's Show was doing well and Chappelle had signed a $50 million deal in 2004 to produce two more seasons,[4][7][22][30] but he abruptly left the show for South Africa in April 2005 prior to the premiere of the show's third season.[4][22][30] He left without warning Brennan or others of the show's crew.[21][22][31][32] As a result, the premiere of season three was delayed; Brennan compiled the remaining sketches and aired them in July 2006 as the "lost episodes."[31][33]

In 2015 Brennan developed and performed a comedy show, 3 Mics in Los Angeles. He brought it to New York City in 2016, opening on March 3 at the Lynn Redgrave Theater. It was directed by Drew Barr. John Legend and his Get Lifted partners Mike Jackson and Ty Stiklorius produced the limited engagement. The show has Brennan alternating between three microphones.[42]